


Of Fortunes and Dead Men

by LysCat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Fortune Telling, Gen, Late Night Conversations, New Friends, Reunions, back from the dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-06 05:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17339429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LysCat/pseuds/LysCat
Summary: Summary: A Crossover between AOS and Avengers. Another version of Coulson coming face to face with some of the Avengers after his death. Set during season five of AOS, before the events in Avengers: Infinity War.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike the other two works in progress, this one is completed. This is what I originally started when I wanted to write a Captain Quake holiday story, but it ran away from me. While this isn't a Steve/Daisy pairing, I do tease something.

General Disclaimer: I don’t own any characters familiar to Marvel.

 

Chapter 1

(Note and disclaimer: I did use some Russian in this chapter. I apologize ahead of time if I completely murdered the language, I used google translate. I have the translations at the end of the chapter.)

“You know, when you decided to spring me out of the joint, I didn’t have this in mind,” Bucky said, referring to the group of men they’d just faced down. He’d been thrilled when Steve, Sam and Nat invited him to get away from Wakanda for a short while, but he’d been expecting a break, not a fight. He brushed debris off his clothes and looked around the area.

Sam Wilson snorted in amusement. “It wasn’t exactly on our list of things to do today,” he short back, looking over the field of unconscious men, spotting Steve standing close to an unknown woman.

“Oh, look, Steve found a fan,” Natasha Romanoff said with a smirk on her face. Her two companions began giving commentary about the woman and the hold she had on Steve’s arm. “Come on Laurel and Hardy, let’s rescue him.”

“Or…you know, find a way to tease Stevie about it,” Bucky replied in a dramatic whisper to Sam.

Once they were close enough, they heard her heavily accented English. “Please, come inside.”

Once he was reunited with his teammates and he was able to see they were all fine with his own two eyes, Steve Rogers raised a hand and rubbed the back of his neck. “That isn’t necessary,” he denied, growing uncomfortable by the look in her eyes.

It was the first time that Bucky’d had a chance to get away from Wakanda. That wasn’t to say it was the first time he’d been invited, but it was the first time his friend felt comfortable enough to do so. As soon as his confrontation with Stark ended, they’d sought refuge from T’Challa in Wakanda, where Bucky had worked tirelessly in effort to get back to his old self. It was rough and often emotionally draining, but given the strives his friend made, he’d decided to reward Bucky by getting him out of Wakanda, even if it was only for a short time.

“You saved life,” the unnamed woman said, batting her eyelashes at him.

Clearing his throat, he looked to the side, hoping that someone would say something in effort to deter the woman. However, his hopes were dashed when Sam and Bucky snickered and elbowed each other in amusement while Natasha smirked at him, not bothering to speak up.

“Really, I insist,” the foreign woman said, locking her arm through his. “Your friends are welcome too,” she tacked on, smiling at the two men, her expression turning neutral as it settled on the blonde woman, as if she was trying to size up her competition. “I would like my family to meet brave man that saved me.”

While he allowed her to pull him along, he turned back to frown at all three of his friends, vowing retribution for their joy at his discomfort.

“You look uncomfortable. Relax, Stevie,” Bucky said, chuckling.

Steve shook his head at his friend.

“Family will love you,” the woman said, tightening her hold on his arm.

"Вся семья, да?" Natasha asked, paying no mind to the broken English.

“You speak Russian?” The woman asked.

"Да. "

The woman pulled Steve inside, making room for his friends. “"Я дома!” She called out for her family. “I brought guests.”

“Svetlana.”

Steve looked up to find an old woman peering from around the corner. He could only assume Svetlana was the woman’s name given the chiding tone behind it. From the moment he met the older, at least in terms of physicality, woman’s gaze, he felt uncomfortable. The woman appeared to look straight through him and he fought the urge to fidget.

“Отпусти мальчика. Он не твой, чтобы держат.”

When Svetlana detangled herself from his arm, Steve wasted no time in stepping away from her. He wasn’t sure what was said, but he was pretty sure it was about him. From behind him, he heard Nat and Bucky exchange words over it. He’d have to ask them what was said. However, the contemplative look on the redhead’s face had him second guess that decision. He was pulled from his thoughts when a hand touched his. He looked up to find the old woman looking at him.

“Я долго ждал встречи с тобой, Стив Роджерс.”

He remained stoic, not sure what the woman was saying.

«Столько потерь, столько грусти. Но не навсегда».

“Nat?” He asked then. “Care to translate?”

The former assassin considered it, if only just see his reaction. However, she’d learned through the course of her friendship with Steve that he’d long since given up on the idea of fate and wouldn’t give an ounce of credit to it.

“Вы познакомитесь со старыми друзьями и откроете для себя новую любовь.”

Nat’s head swiveled from Steve the old woman. A new love? He’d find a new love? “"Когда?" And old friends? Would that mean Tony? Or maybe Thor? Or…she trailed off refusing to think on Bruce. Did she mean a new love from old friends? Could it…Maria? Maria Hill had never fawned over Steve like most women did upon meeting Captain America, but then, she’d never given him particular attention either. Maybe it wasn’t. Hmm… Her interest was piqued.

«Она будет твоей равной, твоей парой во всех отношениях, и ты будешь счастливее, чем ты думал». She began to pat the top of Steve’s hand. “Она будет твоей равной, твоей парой во всех отношениях, и ты будешь счастливее, чем ты думал.”

“Really, Nat,” Steve broke in, way past being uncomfortable.

“She’s…I think she’s a fortune teller. She is telling your future.”

He immediately grew skeptical upon hearing the words. “Seriously?” He almost scoffed, but his mother raised him better than that. He knew he couldn’t do so without the possibility of offending someone and the woman did appear in earnest…if not a little crazy.

“Seriously,” Bucky chimed in, his amusement having faded when the woman began speaking. Normally, he would have enjoyed seeing his friend squirm a bit, but he could clearly see how unsettled Steve was growing.

“Tell her thank you,” Steve said, feeling uncomfortable for thanking the woman for something he didn’t even believe in. “But that we really should go. We have a train to catch.”

Natasha turned to the woman. “Он говорит спасибо, но мы должны идти.”

The old woman tilted her head and smiled sadly at the man before her, knowing he didn’t believe her words.

“You leave?” Svetlana asked from a few feet away, pouting at the thought of the handsome man leaving.

Having taken enough pleasure in Steve’s situation, Bucky nodded. “We have a train to catch,” he told the young woman apologetically.

“Thank you for inviting us into your home,” Steve said to the young woman before turning to her…grandmother? “Thank you,” he offered, though he had no idea why. Giving both women a nod, he made his way towards the door, not bothering to wait for his friends.

Sam was the second person to excuse himself, quickly joining Steve.

“You didn’t have to encourage her,” Steve hissed at his friend. He’d hoped that Sam and Bucky would get along, but the pair of them seemed to be thick as thieves, which sometimes didn’t bode well for him.

“We didn’t,” Sam replied with a shrug. They just hadn’t discouraged her.

From the short distance away from the front door, Steve watched as Bucky reached for Svatlana’s hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. When the blonde giggled, Steve couldn’t help but roll his eyes and shake his head. Same old Bucky. He’d always been a sucker for pretty blondes. He watched as his friend strolled over to him, a proud smirk on his face before shrugging, as if to question ‘what.’  Once again, Steve shook his head. He felt a flash of relief to see his friend being so carefree. Since finding refuge in Wakanda, his friend had made great strides, but it was little moments like that when Steve felt resolute in his decision to defend Bucky…despite the things it’d cost him.

While Bucky quickly sidled up to Svetlana as they left, Natasha was stopped by the old woman.

"Он упрямый, нет?"

Steve stubborn? "У тебя нет идей."

“Цветы отрастают, даже после того, как на них наступили.”

Natasha tilted her head at the woman, confused as to why she’d mention flowers after such a conversation, but smiled anyway. With one last parting word, she joined the boys.

~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, are we going to discuss what happened when we were in Russia?” Natasha broached. Days had passed since their meeting with Svetlana and her grandmother. Days, in which Steve hadn’t bothered to mention anything about it. She looked from Steve to Bucky and then back to Steve.

Steve immediately shook his head in negative. “I don’t want to know,” he denied.

“You aren’t just a little curious?” She returned, surprised by the conviction in his voice.

He shook his head in negative. “No. You know I don’t believe in that.”

“I know you don’t, but it’s just a bit of fun.”

He shook his head in negative. “Not for me,” he muttered. “Just…let it go,” he said, offering his companion a small smile to negate the bite of his tone.

When she realized there’d be no pushing the issue, Natasha nodded in response.

Sensing the awkwardness growing between the pair, Sam stood up. “Steve, you want to hit the gym with me?” He asked, interrupting his friend from what he assumed would be a brooding session.

Steve sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I could do a little sparring.”

As the pair walked off, Natasha looked to Bucky for some clarification. “What was all that about?”

“Before the war, I was seeing a dame named Helen.” He paused to reflect on the pretty young woman. Like his previous partners, she’d been beautiful, and he’d fallen swiftly. However, just like all the others that had come before her, he knew that she wasn’t the one to make him decide to settle down. “The three of us went to a fair one night and she convinced us to visit the fortune teller traveling with it. Helen and I went first, it was the obligatory, you will marry and have…insert the number of children here,” he rolled his eyes, “but she was different with Steve. The fortune teller told him that when he met his flower, they’d live a long and happy life together,” Bucky shared.

Nat frowned. “And she said the word ‘flower?’”

He nodded. “I don’t think he put a lot of stock into it, all fun and games and what-not. It wasn’t until he met his English Rose that he started to believe.”

“English Ro-you mean Peggy?” She waited for him to acknowledge her words. “I guess that relationship didn’t really work out,” she tacked on. “Funny thing, the old woman mentioned flowers to me as well.”

Bucky only shrugged his shoulders in response. “You can’t tell me you believe in that stuff,” he nearly scoffed.

“I don’t know,” Natasha shrugged. She never had before. “He’s different than he used be to be, almost jaded. He takes everything on and…I just wish that he could be happy.”

And she was looking for that through a fortune teller? “He is,” Bucky replied. “He’s got us and Sam. And maybe it’s not a conventional sense of family, but we’re together and happy.” He shrugged. “Besides, it isn’t exactly the best idea for him to be getting too deeply involved with anyone, what with being on the run.” It had certainly put a strain on his relationship with Sharon Carter, which had crashed and burned just as quickly as it had started.

Natasha shook her head. “I still can’t believe everything that happened.” James Rhodes was still in physical therapy, Clint was on house arrest, Wanda had virtually disappeared, no one had heard from Bruce or Thor…as far as she knew, they were war criminals. Tony should never have forced Steve’s hand. The two of them should have tried to find a way to work things out together… Unfortunately, Tony could be a bit of a hothead and Steve was stubborn. She looked to her companion, taking notice of the way he appeared to be avoiding looking in her direction. “It isn’t your fault,” she told him. “Steve would do anything for family.”

“Isn’t that what you guys used to be?” He asked, referring to the team of Avengers.

Natasha could only shrug her shoulders in reply. If it hadn’t been for Fury, they never would have come together. They were all just…too different, her prior friendship with Clint aside. However, as different as they all were, they were brothers in arms and shared something that not many people did and bonded them.

“Hey, Nat?” Sam asked, approaching the pair. “Something’s come across your feed and Steve’s slightly worked up about it.”

“I thought you were going to the gym?” Bucky asked.

Sam shrugged. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen now.” By the time he’d emerged from his room ready to hit the gym, Steve had already been waiting for him. However, his friend had been staring blankly at the computer screen before he began talking to himself about Fury and his secrets.  

“What did he find?” The redhead asked.

“The US Government has issued wanted posters.”

Wanted posters? Of them? “Of us?” She questioned.

He shook his head in negative. “No, but he’s worked into a tizzy about someone on it.”

“Never a dull moment…” Bucky said, standing up and extending a hand for his companion. “Shall we see what has him so worked up?”

Natasha accepted the hand and stood up before disconnecting herself from him. “I suppose we should.” The three made their way back towards the direction Sam left Steve in. “What’s happened now?”

Steve stepped away from the front of the computer screen and her immediately fell on it. Her attention automatically fell on the man that wore her once mentor’s face.

He watched her reaction, wondering if it was something that she’d already known about and just hadn’t mentioned. However, she appeared to be just as surprised as he’d been. “Coulson did die, didn’t he?”

Natasha returned the question with a flat look behind her eyes long enough for him to understand her before her attention returned to the page. Her eyes fell on every single picture, but the last one caused her to pause. Was that…Mel? She hadn’t heard anything about the other woman. Until then, she’d assumed that May was among the first casualties when Hydra eliminated those they deemed the biggest threats during their attempt to take over. If they were both on the same poster, then that more than likely meant they’d been together. She’d seen chatter that SHIELD was back with someone she’d never met at the helm. Were they still with her former organization?

“Nat?” Steve asked gathering her attention. “That is Coulson, isn’t it?”

Natasha nodded, nibbling on her bottom lip. “I think so.” She’d spent enough time with Phil Coulson over the years, she should know him.

“Okay, who’s this Coulson?” Sam asked, wondering why both had reacted like that.

“He was a former handler of mine,” Natasha replied, “mentor,” she corrected. “He helped bring us all together when we dealt with the Battle in New York. Loki killed him.”

“Are you sure this just isn’t an old document?” Bucky asked then, leaning in to check the date. “I guess not.”

“This has happened a lot since I met the two of you,” Sam said, looking between Steve and Natasha. He was, of course referring to people coming back from the dead.

“I think it’s time I give Maria a call,” Natasha said, pulling out her phone. If she didn’t know what was going on, then at least she’d be able to put Natasha into contact with Fury. Because even though Fury was no long active with SHIELD, she was sure he knew what was going on.  

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Talk about cutting it close,” Jemma Simmons panted running behind Fitz.

Following behind the others to make it to Flint in time, Daisy Johnson watched as her team ran inside the room, not wanting miss the short window they’d been provided in order to return home. From the moment that they’d found an opportunity to return to their time, she’d been flipping between deciding to return with them or to stay there. As selfish as she wanted to be and join the others, she thought back to the moment she’d seen the video of the events that happened…would happen. Despite the fact that they knew what was coming, that didn’t mean they’d be able to prevent it. At least if she stayed behind, that would mean a solid solution. She listened to the voices of her teammates, committing them to memory.

Having noticed he was no longer being followed, Phil Coulson came to a stop. “What are you doing?” He asked, turning towards Daisy.

Hearing the question, Melinda May paused at the door and turned around to find Daisy standing several feet away while Coulson looked at her expectantly. May looked at her former rookie and recognized the distance Daisy had placed herself from them. There was no missing the intent behind her eyes.

Daisy tried to smile at him, but she knew it failed. She cleared her throat before speaking. “This is where we part ways.”

“Daisy-”

She was already shaking her head in negative. “I can’t go back.”

“What are you talking about? Of course, you can.”

“This is our chance to ensure that this,” she gestured around them, “doesn’t happen.” She watched as he approached her and relaxed her arms, ready for him to embrace her.

Realizing how time sensitive the situation was, Coulson knew there’d be no time to break down her resolve. Thinking quickly, he used his metallic arm and knocked her unconscious, catching her body before she fell to the ground. Once she was secured in his arms, he turned towards May.

“She’s going to furious when she wakes up,” she told him.

He nodded. Probably. But he couldn’t find it in himself to really care. “I really don’t care. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I leave her here.” There was no way he would have been able to return home without her. How Daisy could possibly think otherwise, he didn’t know.

“I didn’t say I disagreed with you,” she said, holding the door opened for him as they joined the others.

Mack, spying an unconscious Daisy looked to Coulson in alarm. “What happened?”

Coulson would only shake his head in negative.

 

 

 

Translations: "Вся семья, да?" “The whole family, huh?” | "Да. " Yes | "Я дома." “I’m Home.” | “Отпусти мальчика. Он не твой, чтобы держат.” “Let the boy go. He is not yours to hold.” | «Я долго ждал встречи с тобой, Стив Роджерс». “I have waited a long time to meet you, Steve Rogers.” |«Столько потерь, столько грусти. Но не навсегда». “So much loss, so much sadness. But not forever.” | «Вы познакомитесь со старыми друзьями и откроете для себя новую любовь». “You will be reacquainted with old friends and discover a new love.” | "Когда?" “When?” |  «Она будет твоей равной, твоей парой во всех отношениях, и ты будешь счастливее, чем ты думал». “In the near future.” | «Она будет твоей равной, твоей парой во всех отношениях, и ты будешь счастливее, чем ты думал». "She will be your equal, your match in every way and you will be happier than you thought possible." | «Он говорит спасибо, но мы должны идти». “He says thank you, but we need to be going.” |"Он упрямый, нет?" “He is stubborn, no?” | "У тебя нет идей." “You have no idea.” | «Цветы отрастают, даже после того, как на них наступили». “Flowers grow back, even after they’ve been stepped on.”


	2. Chapter 2

Author’s Note: I’m glad that the first chapter went over well. I spent the last two days making final changes on this chapter and was able to flush it out enough to create an extra chapter. And hey, there’s no Russian in this one. Disclaimer: I don’t own any characters familiar to Marvel.

Chapter 2

Once everything stabilized, the group looked around unsurely. They were still in the…Lighthouse? Their surroundings had changed, but only slightly. The walls were lighter than what they remembered, and the floors were almost in pristine condition compared to what they’d seen, but it was still the same building they’d liberated from the Kree.

“Did it work?” Elena Rodriguez asked, voicing everyone’s unspoken question.

“I think so,” Melinda May replied unsurely, not seeing the rocks or Flint. That did mean they returned, didn’t it?

Mack stepped forward. “We have to be.” He peered around the room. It was empty other than them.

“You are.”

The group stopped short upon hearing an unfamiliar voice. They spun around towards the direction of it, May, Mack and Elena moving to the front of the group in case a fight ensued.

“I am Noah. Enoch had me wait here to greet you upon your return.”

“So, you’re…” Mack trailed off not remembering the species Enoch claimed he was.

“A Chronicon, yes,” Noah supplied before looking at the man holding the unconscious woman. “Do you need assistance?” He asked, nodding toward Daisy. “Does she need medical attention?”

“No,” May replied, “but he might when she wakes up,” she added with smirk on her face, despite the seriousness of the situation.

“Perhaps I should look everyone over,” Jemma volunteered then as she looked over the group, noticing how warn everyone appeared to look. They’d all had to fight to get to Flint in time.

“Soon,” Coulson told her. As far as he could tell, other than the unconscious Inhuman in his arms, everyone appeared mostly unharmed. First, they needed to regroup and get some answers. “Where should I put her?” He asked, turning to look at Noah. While it was the same layout they’d seen for months, the building was relatively new compared to the hellish reality they’d just come from.

“There is a couch through there,” Noah replied, pointing towards an archway. “Once she is settled there is something we should discuss.”

Coulson nodded as he made his way through the arch. Locating the couch, he gently settled her on it. He knew she would more than likely be furious with him when she discovered they were back in the present time. He could only hope that she’d eventually understand his actions. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, though knowing she wouldn’t hear it. Straightening up, he made his way towards his team.

“I say we all pitch in, buy a round of burgers, beer and the greasiest pizza we can find,” Mack said.

“Noah, what’s the date?” Coulson asked, ignoring the hunger pains that Mack’s words had triggered.

The Chronicon muttered off the current date. “I realize some time has passed since you were last here-”

Mack didn’t bother to hide his snort of amusement. “That’s one way of putting it.” His brother was probably beyond worried. As soon as he had an opportunity, he’d need to call.

“We’ve been missing for six months?” Jemma Simmons asked, gobsmacked. She knew they’d spent a substantial amount of time in the future, but wouldn’t it have been easier to send them back to the time they were originally taken? When they’d been taken from the diner? Her parents were probably worried sick. She’d never been radio silent for so long, her time on Maveth aside.

“What about any other agents? No one is here?” Phil asked, wondering about those that he hadn’t seen since before his fight with Aida. There had to have been survivors… Where were they?

“Until yesterday, I was alone.”

May’s head swiveled in Noah’s direction. Yesterday? “Who’s here with you?”

“We are,” a new voice piped up.

Coulson spun around towards the voice. “Natasha.”

“Hi, Phil,” the woman greeted with a smile on her face. She approached him and threw her arms around him. “You realize you have a lot to explain, right?” She asked him quietly.

Coulson returned the embrace and nodded. “I’m sure. I expected you to be more upset,” he admitted then.

She drew away from him. “I probably would have been if I’d found out months ago,” she admitted. After leaving her former life, she’d stopped taking things for granted. “It’s really good to see you,” she said before looking at the group gathered around him, recognizing only one. “Hi, Mel.”

“Natasha,” the Asian woman replied with a nod of acknowledgement and a smile.

Coulson looked behind Natasha and noticed three men, only one familiar to him. “Cap,” he greeted.

“Agent Coulson,” Steve said, stepped forward and offering his hand.

Coulson accepted the hand. “It’s Director Coulson,” he corrected him before his attention fell on the other two men.

Steve moved closer to his friends. “Friends and associates of ours, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes.”

Upon hearing the latter’s name, Coulson’s eyes widened as they fell on the man. “No way!” He exclaimed, forgetting himself. “How did you come across him?” He moved to Bucky. “Can I just say, it’s an honor to meet you?”

Bucky politely shook the man’s hand. He’d heard about this Coulson and how much he’d admired Steve when he was growing up, but he never expected such a similar greeting. Ever since Steve had proven himself by retrieving the 107th from behind enemy lines, he’d always been at the forefront of things where the general public was concerned. In the time since Steve had helped him start over, he’d learned that it wasn’t necessarily a good thing when people knew his name, so he’d been surprised by the man’s reaction to him.

“How did this happen?”

“He was under Hydra’s control,” Natasha replied.

Coulson’s expression turned to one of pity. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he told the man. “We’ve dealt with mental reconditioning in the past.” He looked to Natasha again. “How’d you break it?” He asked, they’d never been able to find a solution.

“Another associate of ours has been very helpful on that front,” Steve answered for her.

The sound of a throat clearing pulled their attention and Coulson remembered he wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry. My team. Let me introduce Elena Rodriguez, otherwise known as ‘Yo-Yo.’ Melinda May, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons and that is Agent Mackenzie, but we call him Mack,” he said, pointing out each person.

May, seeming to be the most unphased by the guests spoke up. “How did you find out Coulson was alive?”

Natasha pulled a folder piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to Coulson.

“The US Government is looking for us,” Coulson announced after looking over the flyer. “Given what happened at the Playground and Talbot’s assassination attempt, I’m not surprised.” However, it would make things more difficult for them. It wasn’t so much that he hadn’t been expecting something in retaliation for the events that occurred at the Playground, but he didn’t think they’d be on the watch list for every government organization.

“I’d been seeing wisps of information about SHIELD, then nothing for months,” Natasha said, watching as Coulson nodded. “And then I came across this.”

“There wasn’t anything in the news?” Yo-Yo asked. If there were flyers asking for their capture, wouldn’t the media been made aware of it?

“If there was, it must have only been national, which we would have missed.” Sam replied. “We’ve been…we’re now considered war criminals.”

Phil looked from Natasha to Steve before looking at Sam. “Seriously?” He asked. Captain America was a war criminal? How did something like that even happen? He remembered hearing about potential ramifications where Steve and the others were concerned prior to being replaced with an LMD, but he didn’t think the US Government would actually do that to Captain America.

“We refused to sign the Sokovia Accords,” Sam replied with a shrug. “We’ve been abroad ever since.”

“What about the rest of the Avengers?” Fitz asked, speaking up.

Natasha gave the man a negative shake of her head instead of explaining anything. She figured that the absence of the other Avengers gave them an idea as to how things were.

“Natasha, how did you find this place?” May asked then.

“When we saw the wanted poster, I started searching for other SHIELD facilities, starting outside the states. I didn’t even know that this place existed until I did a really deep dive.” It wasn’t the first base they’d been to, but the first two places they’d checked out had been abandoned. “When we discovered Noah here, it took a bit of persuasion.”

“She threatened me with massive bodily harm,” the Chronicon tossed in matter-of-factly.

When her former handler offered her an amused expression in response to the man’s words, she shrugged. “What about you?” She asked Coulson. “How did you gather the government’s interest? Where have you been the last six months?”

Before he could answer though, the sound of Daisy’s frantic cries were heard from another room. “Excuse me,” he said without waiting for acknowledgement, walking in the direction he’d left her in. He hesitated underneath the threshold of the door, seeing Daisy hunched in on herself. When he’d chosen to take her with them without her consent, he knew there’d be anger, but he hadn’t expected the disappointment.

“We’re back aren’t we?” She asked, looking at him without bothering to hide the horror on her face. His silence was answer enough for her. “You knew how I felt, and you knocked me out and brought me back anyway,” she accused as she stood up and approached him.

“I did,” he accepted quietly.

She shook her head at him and walked past him. “We had the perfect solution and you just-”

He turned and trailed after her. “That was not a solution,” he denied. “Did you really think I would just accept your decision and come back here without you?” He called out from behind her.

Back in the main room, Steve exchanged a look with Natasha, before tilting his head to the side, as if silently asking her if they should leave and let Coulson’s team discuss whatever it was that had this unknown team member so worked up. However, his attention was caught by the brunette that made her way through the threshold. From the corner of his eye he noticed Nat shake her in negative as an answer to his question, but he didn’t remove his gaze from the unknown brunette.

Upon entering the next room, Daisy spun around to face Coulson. From her peripheral, she’d noticed a few forms, but she excused them, thinking they were members of their team. “Yes,” she hissed. “What is SHIELD for, if not to protect the world from threats?” She shot back before pursing her lips. “And we all know I’m that threat,” she reminded him as well as the rest of the team.

Steve looked at the woman appraisingly. She was a threat? To…what? His eyes trailed down her body, her arms appeared to be in good shape and he’d bet the rest of her body was just as fit, however, there was nothing that would suggest trouble. All in all, she seemed…underwhelming.

Coulson immediately shook his head in negative. “We don’t know that for certain,” he denied passionately.

“Yes, we do, we saw the video coverage of me approaching ground zero before the planet broke in half.” Even if all of the team hadn’t seen the video, they’d heard about it. “I’m the one responsible for the end of the world and instead of leaving me behind, ensuring there would be no possibility of the world being quaked apart, you brought me back!”

Her words were accusing, and he felt himself growing frustrated. “Leaving you seventy years in the future was not an option!” The words were out before he could help himself. He hadn’t anticipated announcing such a thing in front of Natasha and Steve, but he needed Daisy to know that he would have never left her behind.

Steve’s eyes widened. Seventy years…in the future? They’d time traveled? He looked at his teammates, noticing similar expressions of disbelief written across their facial features. The world was going to end?

Daisy threw her hands up in frustration. “Not at the expense of the world!”

Pausing for a beat, Coulson calmed himself as he tried to reason with her. “Yes, that video showed you going to ground zero,” he allowed, “but there was no footage of what actually occurred there,” he finished calmly. “Everyone just assumed that you had something to do with it.” He watched her body uncoil slightly. “You still have the inhibitor in. And if Kasius is to be believed, it would be dangerous to remove it ourselves, so we know you won’t be quaking apart anything.” He watched as she nibbled on her bottom lip. “Besides that, I need you, Daisy. I need you with me, with us.”

Had they just witnessed Coulson declaring his love for this woman? Steve scratched at a nonexistent itch behind his ear as he considered the dynamic between Coulson and…Daisy. She seemed a little young for the director, but who was he to judge? Especially if one were to compare the age difference between him and Sharon Carter… Pulling his gaze away from the pair, it fell on the rest of Coulson’s team that appeared to have fallen to the wayside as the pair spoke.

“Why?” Daisy wondered. “Why was it so important that I return?” She continued.

“You mean aside from the fact you’re my family?” Coulson asked, arching his eyebrows at her expectantly. When she didn’t appear ready to accept his response, his body visibly deflated and he spoke the truth. “I’m dying.” It was the first time he’d ever uttered the words aloud. And again, it wasn’t what he intended to say in front of Natasha.

Upon hearing the revelation, Steve’s attention once again fell on Coulson before they trailed over to Daisy. He watched as she digested the words, blanching all the while. His heart went out to her. He imagined it was probably similar to the one he’d worn when he realized that there would be no returning to Peggy.

Of anything he could have said in response, that was the last thing she expected. Her arms dropped to her side. “What?” Her heart figuratively dropped into her stomach and she felt as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over her.

He heard other similar questions from their team. Momentarily, his attention fell on Melinda and he met her expectant gaze. He matched the look with a silent promise that they would have their own discussion soon before he focused solely on Daisy. “In order to gain the help from Ghost Rider, the GH-325 was severed,” he divulged. Again, various questions came from the rest of the team, but his attention never wavered from _his_ agent.

“How long have you known?” Daisy asked then, though something told her that she already knew the answer. When he didn’t answer, she pursed her lips. “All this time, you knew all this time and didn’t think to say something?” A plethora of emotions welled within her.

“To be fair, we were busy dealing with Kasius and the Kree,” he excused, watching the tears gather in her eyes.

She angrily wiped the first fallen tear away with the back of her hand. He was dying? No, that couldn’t be right. “You should have said something when we were in the future!” She accused. “They had a solution, they managed to bring Tess back from the dead.” Of all the stupid things to do…stubborn man! “If you said something then, we could have used whatever it was to fix you too.”

He shook his head in negative. “I already defeated death once,” he replied softly. “Fury and the doctors ignored my wishes,” he recalled, watching as she processed the words.

She was brought back to the time when he’d been abducted. Even years later, she could still clearly recall hearing his pleading for them to let him die when she and May found him hooked up to the machine. She’d addressed it exactly once, and he’d waved it away. In all the years that they’d worked together, it was the one thing they’d never discussed, but she’d never forget the pain and hopelessness in his voice.

Coulson didn’t need to ask what she was thinking of as he offered her a sad smile. As far as he was concerned, he had already been living on borrowed time. “I brought you back because I need you to continue on with this,” he gestured around the area, implying his reference to the Lighthouse.

“The others would have done that,” she reminded him.

He nodded. “I know, but I want you,” he said. “I want you to lead when I’m gone.”

Her? Become the director? Even before Hydra came out of the shadows and everything went to hell in a handbasket, she would have never considered such a thing. She shook her head in negative with more tears welling up in her eyes. “No.” She shook her head in negative. “No, because we’re going to fix this.” That was all there was to it, they’d find a way to save him. “I can’t lose you, Coulson. Not…not like this.” As soon as she’d started speaking, she lost control of her emotions. Her words were broken, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

Guilt welled up in his chest and he stepped forward, pulling her into his arms. He tightened his hold on her as she gave in to her emotions and leaned his head against the side of hers. “I don’t want that,” he told her softly. “I’ve already lived two lifetimes, one of them stolen. It was bound to catch up with me.” He felt her shake her head against his shoulder.

“No,” she argued. “You are not going to go off and die on me. I can’t…”

“You were ready to stay behind before,” he recalled. “What’s the difference?”

“Yes, when I thought my staying behind meant that the rest of you got to live long lives,” she said pulling away from him far enough to meet his gaze. “I can’t stand by and watch you die and not do anything about it,” she said. “You’re my family, too.”

When she began to sob, he pulled her into his embrace once again.

While he heart went out to the young woman in Phil’s arms, Natasha couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer. “Coulson, what the hell? You’re dying? Seventy years in the future? The Kree?”

The questions broke through the fog of her despair and she stopped crying. Daisy opened her eyes against Coulson’s shoulder and lifted her head to find the shapes she’d mistakenly assumed were their teammates we actually… “When did the Avengers get here? How long was I out?” Just how hard had he hit her?

Untangling himself from Daisy, Coulson turned and claimed a position next to her, placing an arm around her shoulders. “Daisy, meet Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers.”

Daisy attempted to wipe away her tears as she nodded at all of the new acquaintances. When her eyes finally fell on Steve, she watched as he reached into his pocket before extending his hand, a white cloth in his open palm.

“Here you go,” he offered, watching her hesitate for a moment.

He was offering a handkerchief? How very chivalrous… Daisy reached for the item that was offered and began dabbing under her eyes. “Thank you,” she replied softly.

Coulson turned to look over his team, everyone looking a little worse for wear before looking at the female Avenger’s expectant gaze. “We’ll talk, but first, we need to get cleaned up,” he told her, referring to the status of his team. “It’s already been a long day for us and hot showers will do us some good.” He turned back to the team. “If anyone feels they need to be looked over, Jemma has already offered…”

“Enoch and I took the liberty of retrieving your personal affects while you were gone and everyone has been issued a room,” Noah said. “If you all follow me…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“That was one crazy conversation. You okay, man?”

The question pulled him from his reflections and Steve looked up at the door to find Sam leaning against the door frame.

“I don’t really know,” he admitted.

Sam nodded, as if completely understanding him. “I thought that things got weird when you and Nat turned up on my doorstep, but…” he trailed off momentarily. “I mean life model decoys, computer simulated worlds, another nearly unstoppable robot, time travel and aliens? Is this what it was like when you were with SHIELD?”

Steve smiled wryly. “Not usually.” He exhaled a long sigh. “I was never close to Coulson the way Nat was.” However, that didn’t mean his death at Loki’s hands hadn’t mattered to him. “But this situation he’s in… And, thinking he was dead, only to find him alive and now dying…I can’t imagine what Nat must be feeling right now.”

“She’s pissed off, is what she’s feeling right now,” Natasha said as she stepped past Sam and entered the room with Bucky stopping next to Sam under the frame of the door. She claimed a seat next to Steve on the edge of his bed. “We have to do something,” she said, her voice taking on one of sadness.

“You heard him, Nat,” Steve reminded her softly. “He doesn’t want that.”

She shook her head in negative. “I can’t help but feel that if we were there for him, he wouldn’t be in this situation.” Not to say that his team couldn’t handle things, they obviously had after no contact from him. But as Avengers, they dealt with things that ordinary people didn’t. Maybe they would have been enough to deal with that robot and he would have never had to make that deal in the first place?

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Sam said. “You didn’t even know he was alive. If he wanted the help, he could have reached out to any of you.”

Cautiously, Steve placed a hand over one of hers. “Sam’s right,” he pointed out.

Natasha looked down at his hand. “He’s so different from the way he used to be,” she mused. Prior to Hydra, most SHIELD agents generally had the same persona. Of course, there were people that differed from the rest, Coulson being one of them. “You spend enough time with other agents, they become extended family, but the way he was with Daisy? I’ve never seen that side of him before.”

Daisy. Despite the fact that she’d been a virtual stranger at the time of the conversation; her tearful reaction to Coulson’s news had been like a punch to the gut and he couldn’t help but feel for the pretty, young woman.

“Coulson deserves more,” Nat said, unaware of his internal musings. “His life was already robbed from him once. He deserves a chance.”

“A chance to what?” Steve asked then.

“To have more than just this,” she said, gesturing to the room. “He’s already got it in his mind that Daisy is going to take over. Maybe when it becomes official, he can step away and have a life?” She asked. “He at least deserves the opportunity.”

“I don’t think you’re alone on this line of thinking,” Bucky said, remembering the vehement denials Daisy had spoken earlier on that day. In fact, almost everyone else on her team seemed to be of the same mind.

Natasha looked at him and nodded slowly. “I’m going to offer my help,” she said, turning to look at Steve. It was by no means her asking for permission, but he deserved to know in case something should come up.

“What about the part where he said he didn’t want to be saved?” Steve returned.

“Right now, he’s just resolved to the fact,” she argued.

He shook his head in negative. “Do we really have the right to take the choice away from him?” Steve asked.

“What choice?” She countered hotly, before inhaling a calming breath. Grudgingly, she could admit that Steve had a point. “I won’t force him to do anything,” Natasha sighed. “I just…want to at least give him the option to make a different decision,” she amended, watching as he processed the words. “You don’t have to help me, but it would be easier if you were with me on this.” She knew if she reached out to Clint, he’d be willing but unable to help because of his house arrest. And though Tony had worked side by side with SHIELD on many ventures, she didn’t think he’d interfere with anything.

She wanted to drag him into it too? He closed his eyes and a mental picture of Daisy and Coulson’s tearful embrace came to mind before his eyes shot open.

“If you’d been given another option instead of crashing that plane into the ice, wouldn’t you have at least considered it?” She asked quietly.

Once upon a time, he wouldn’t have hesitated if he’d been given another choice, but things had changed. “And you won’t force him into anything?” When she verified the words, he found himself nodding. “Fine, I’m in.”


	3. Chapter 3

Author’s Note: After considering some constructive criticism, I’m changing the format of anything spoken in Russian. In effort to keep from messing up the flow of the story, I’ve changed it so that anything written in _italics_ is meant to be spoken in Russian.

Chapter 3

Flopping onto her back, Daisy gave up on the idea of finding any sort of rest for the time being. Crawling out of bed, she turned the light on and bent over to retrieve her shoes. Once on, she stopped in front of the mirror hanging on the wall and looked over her reflection before she dared to venture into the hall. Normally she wouldn’t have cared; but considering the guests staying under the same roof, at least for the night, she at least wanted to make sure she looked presentable…should she run into Steve freaking Rogers. It wasn’t fair that he was so beautiful while she was so…not. “Whatever,” she muttered to herself. There were far more important things to worry about.

Stepping into the hall, she canvased the area before forcing herself to relax. Even though the differences between this Lighthouse and the one they came from were obvious, she still expected to find a Kree lingering in the area. Making her way towards the kitchen, she began looking through the pantry. She wasn’t sure what she was searching for, but something…she’d know it when she found it.

Crackers, chips, cereal…she scrunched her nose. Moving boxes around, her eyes lit up when she spotted it. Pulling the canister out, she set it on the counter before retrieving the milk. “Now, if I were a saucepan in a kitchen that was stocked by aliens that didn’t consume food, where would I be?” She murmured to herself as she looked through various cupboards. “Aha.” Once she located everything she needed, she started making her hot chocolate.

“Do you always make it a habit to talk to yourself?”

She jumped slightly upon hearing the question and spun towards the direction of it. Once she’d gotten the hang of her powers, she’d adapted to the extra hum of vibrations she felt whenever someone approached her. It made it difficult for people to sneak up on her, and she missed it. When she saw Steve standing at the entrance she relaxed slightly before mentally applauding herself to have the forethought to check herself over before leaving her room. “What is it that people say? As long as you don’t answer yourself, it’s okay?” She responded with what she hoped was a casual shrug.

“I’m sorry for sneaking up on you,” he instantly apologized for startling her. “I didn’t realize anyone else was up. When I heard the noises coming from here, I wanted to make sure everything was okay,” he explained. It wasn’t the fact that it was so very late as opposed to the fact that everyone had made themselves scarce most of the night once dinner finished.

“No, I overreacted,” she waved away. “I guess I’m still expecting to see a member from the Blue Man Group when I’m walking through the halls,” she confessed. “As tired as I’ve been the last six months, rest is hard to come by tonight,” she replied before looking back at the stove. “I thought I’d make some hot chocolate.”

He nodded. Given the revelation Coulson shared, he could see how sleep would be hard to come by. “I’ll just…head to another-”

“You really don’t have to,” she said, interrupting him. “Would you like some?”

“Uh, sure?” He replied as he stepped fully into the room.

“Was that a question?” She teased then with a small smile on her face, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder.

It was the first time he’d seen her smile since meeting her and he found his own smile making his way onto his face upon being called out. Slipping onto a barstool at the island counter, he shrugged. “I just don’t want to intrude,” he replied. After the emotional conversation he witnessed be witnessed between Coulson and Daisy, both groups sat down for both a heavy and long conversation, each party talking about the things they’d dealt with the previous couple of years. During all of it, Daisy had been mostly quiet, only speaking when prompted to. Once the conversation ended and the large group split up; she’d holed herself off in her room. By the time dinner was ready, she’d taken her meal in her room, so he was surprised when she told him he didn’t have to leave the kitchen.

“If you were, I wouldn’t have offered you anything,” Daisy told him softly before turning back to the saucepan. When she was convinced the powder was thoroughly mixed with the warm milk, she turned off the burner before retrieving two coffee cups and filling them.

He watched as she set the cup down in front of him before claiming the seat next to his. “Thank you,” he said, before raising the cup to his mouth.

“You’re welcome.”

He took a sip from his hot chocolate before turning to look at his companion. “I’m sorry about Coulson,” he offered quietly. “He’s a good guy.”

Daisy turned to look at him and nodded. “The best.”

He opened his mouth to say something before shutting it once again. He’d never been good at striking up a conversation with new acquaintances, let alone women. He cleared his throat, hoping it would help the pit of uncertainty that was steadily growing in his stomach. However, when he realized he’d gathered her attention he decided to just go for it. “After the conversation earlier, Nat and I talked and…we wanted to let you know that if there’s anything we can do, don’t hesitate to ask.” He noticed a pen and small pad of paper a short distance away and reached for it. “Considering how most of the world views us as criminals, I don’t know how much help we’ll actually be, but we’d like to help all the same,” he tacked on as an afterthought. He wrote down both his number and Nat’s before ripping off the top page and handing it to his companion.

He was giving her his number? Her younger self would have totally shrieked with excitement. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She and May already had a brainstorming session planned for the following day, she’d make sure to pass along the offer.

“Given the story we heard today, it sounds like you may not end up even needing it.” Considering everything that Coulson’s team had faced in the last five years, it sounded like they could handle just about anything. “And if that ends up being the case, we’d still like to be kept in the loop where Coulson’s concerned.”

She nodded again as she set the paper down in front of her. “I think I can do that.” She raised her cup to her lips and took her first slip. As she savored the taste of the drink, her eyes fell closed and an involuntary moan fell from her mouth. As soon as the sound hit her ears, her eyes shot open and she cringed. She looked to Steve, only to find him watching her with a quirk to his lips. “I am so sorry,” she apologized, feeling her cheeks heat up with embarrassment. “It’s just, after six months of nothing more than the slop we were fed, this tastes like a little bit of heaven.”

“It was bad there, huh?” While the Lighthouse had been mentioned, Coulson and his team had held off from speaking too in depth about their experiences, insisting that they were making sure to change the road that initially prompted the need of the Lighthouse in the first place.

“It was like a bad science fiction movie,” she admitted. “The Kree played humans against each other, encouraging them to turn one another in for the smallest infraction for a small reward.” She spoke about the sterilization of the human race before mentioning the ‘Renewal’ that her team faced while Deke was busy selling her to Kasius. “Once I was turned over to Kasius, it felt like I was in some warped version of the show Spartacus.” She looked over at him then, wondering if he’d seen it. “Have you ever seen it?”

He nodded but didn’t offer a verbal response. He didn’t think he’d ever forget the first episode he watched. The entire world had changed during the seventy years he was asleep, and the shock factor had more or less lessened by that time in his life. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw during that first episode. He’d expected the violence and blood. What he hadn’t expected were the sex scenes. Natasha had teased him for days after he told her the story.

“So, you get the basic gist of it…” Looking away from him, she stared into the contents of her cup. “It felt a lot like that. Inhumans were seen as being slightly higher than humans because of their abilities, but not by much. He would host what he called an ‘Exhibition Ceremony,’ where he would invite wealthy acquaintances to the Lighthouse for a few days. During that time the Inhumans would be forced to fight against one another in a pit and once a winner was determined, they were sold off to the highest bidder.”

He turned to look at her, noticing that she was steadily staring at the cup in her hands. “Sounds brutal.” Even after all the horror he’d seen in his life, he still couldn’t understand how one being could treat another in such a way. He looked at her profile, her head was tilted so, so that her neck was exposed, and he was able to see a scar, or what he assumed was _the_ scar. While Coulson had explained their trip to space, from the corner of his eye he’d seen how Daisy covered that particular spot when the inhibitor had been spoken of.

“You can ask.”

The worlds startled him from his thoughts and winced. “I’m sorry,” he apologized for staring.

Daisy shrugged. “I gave up my dreams of being a Victoria’s Secret model after I was shot twice in the stomach,” she replied casually.

He offered her a smile of amusement upon hearing her words and understood what had been left unsaid. “You were really responsible for the end of the world?”

“That’s me. Daisy Johnson, Destroyer of Worlds.” She added a half smile at the end of her self-deprecating words so that he knew she wasn’t mad at him. “That’s what everyone called me,” she shrugged. “Coulson was right when he said we didn’t know for sure. It was all hearsay and assumptions, so I can’t say how. Still though, how could that many people be wrong about something like that?” She expected that as time passed and she matured her powers may eventually evolve as well, but not to that extent, and not that soon. “Even before I had control of my powers and I was causing earthquakes, it was never enough to break the world apart…”

“Do you miss your powers?”

That was the first time someone had asked her that and it took her a moment to consider. “When we were fighting the Kree, yes,” she replied quickly, if not a bit sarcastically. “I do,” she added after a moment. “It feels like there’s a hole now, like I’m not whole. But if I’m responsible for the end of the world, I’ll gladly live the rest of my life like this to ensure that doesn’t happen.” Daisy let out a weary sigh before playing back what she said. “I’m sorry, you didn’t ask for all of that,” she said offering him a lopsided smile as she furrowed her brows. “I’m chalking my emotions during this conversation up as aftershocks to Coulson’s revelation earlier,” she stated then. “Honestly, it isn’t usually so doom and gloom among us. I mean there’s doom; there’s always a doom in one form or another, but we’re usually more sarcastic and upbeat when we deal with things.” When she noticed movement over his shoulder, she focused on it, making out the forms of Bucky and Natasha approaching. “Guess we’re not the only one that can’t sleep…”

Steve turned to see what she was referring to when he noticed the pair talking quietly.

_"Do you think we’re interrupting?”_

He frowned, hating when they spoke Russian in front of him. Whenever they did, he knew it was because they were either discussing him or something about him.

_"No.”_

Hearing the response from the woman next to him, Steve looked at his friends, enjoying the shock on their faces.

Bucky turned to Daisy. “You speak Russian?”

“No, not really,” she shrugged thinking of the few things she’d learned from Bobbi. “I had a teammate that did. She taught me a few things.”

“You don’t mind if we join you, do you?” Natasha asked, looking from Daisy to Steve.

Her tone was innocent enough, but the pointed look in her eyes when she looked at him left little room for doubt that she was implying something. “Why would we mind, Tash?” He asked, watching as the pair settled against the counter across from them.

“Oh, no reason…” Natasha excused.

Daisy narrowed her gaze as she looked from Steve to Natasha, wondering what she’d missed… Her attention fell on Bucky, whom also appeared interested in the conversation but made no effort to participate in it. She noticed that he’d changed outfits since earlier that day and her gaze fell to the stump of his arm, noticing the wounds surrounding it, similar to how Mike Peterson’s arm looked when he removed his prosthetic. She heard a throat clear and realized that she’d been caught. She met his gaze, hoping that she hadn’t made him too uncomfortable. “Your scars,” she said by way of explanation.

Bucky was used to the stares, but that still didn’t mean he was comfortable when it happened. However, instead of the usual apology he heard in response, Bucky startled slightly, not expecting that to have been what held her attention.

“Something happened to a friend of mine and he wound up in a similar position, only, the arm that Hydra gave him had rockets attached to it,” she tacked on. “Did yours?” She asked as an afterthought, attempting to lighten the conversation.

His lips twisted into a smirk upon hearing her question. Again, something he would have never expected someone to say to him. “No, it didn’t,” Bucky answered, smiling at her in appreciation.

“You would have been a whole lot cooler if it had,” she replied simply.

He couldn’t help but chuckle in response to the woman’s words. “I’ll be sure to let T’Challa and Shuri know of your suggestion.”

“Daisy, there you are.”

Daisy turned around to see May approaching her with a bottle of alcohol in hand and inwardly winced.

“I went by your room, but you weren’t there,” May continued as she approached the group, setting the bottle down in front of them before grabbing a glass. “Anyone else?”

“Actually, I’d love some,” Nat replied, picking up the bottle. As soon as May returned to the counter, she poured the drinks for them before tossing back the drink.

Daisy stared pointedly at the bottle. “Is there a point in asking how the conversation went?” Daisy asked, having seen the pair walk off together after dinner.

“This good,” May said before she downed the shot and refilled it. “I’ve been thinking about Coulson, about what we can do and…I…maybe we could try and track down a Cybertek scientist? Maybe someone can recreate the centipede serum, without the-”

“Unfortunate side effect of blowing up?” Daisy finished for her, considering the idea. One of the last things Fury did before officially handing the reigns over to Coulson was to relocate those scientists that had been forced to work for Hydra. However, that information was nowhere to be found, not even in the toolbox. Who knew how much time they’d have to spend tracking someone down. And even if they did manage to locate someone, hadn’t all of the doses been destroyed? Could a single scientist even recreate it? “Even if we could find someone, would that even work?” She asked. “I know they were able to help Mike after the explosion, but he wasn’t dying at the time…”

May thought back to the all of their interactions with the soldiers and pursed her lips. Yes, the serum helped the injured, but it couldn’t stop death itself. “John Garrett,” she said after a moment, thinking on something Jemma said once. “When Fitzsimmons were taken, he was dying and Ward injected him with the serum.”

“No,” Daisy corrected quietly. “I mean yes, he did…but it was more than that.” She wracked her brain for conversations she’d had with the man, or even Ward. “There was something extra added to it,” she replied as she recalled exactly what it was. “He used the same cocktail that Whitehall created from Jaying’s DNA.”

Bucky flinched upon hearing the name. Whitehall? “You mean Daniel Whitehall?” He asked, his body tensing. “You met him?”

Daisy, not missing his reaction, nibbled on her bottom lip and nodded. “He was the one that informed me of my…heritage,” she recalled thinking on the moment he had her touch the deviner. “Grant Ward was the Specialist on the team that Coulson first put together. After Hydra came out and he turned on us, he ended up kidnapping me and taking me to Whitehall.”  

“Who’s this Whitehall?” Steve asked then, concerned by Bucky’s reaction to the name.

“Hydra. He was born around the turn of the 20th century as Werner Reinhardt. During the 40’s, Hydra discovered the existence of Inhumans,” May answered, thinking on the file that she and Jemma had looked through when they moved to the Playground.

“He kidnapped a group of Inhumans and discovered that one of them had the ability of youth rejuvenation, but Peggy Carter and the rest of the Howling Commandos arrested him before he could do anything about the knowledge,” Daisy took over. “In 89, Hydra broke him out of prison and he decided to pick back up where he left off. Except that time, no one was there to stop him,” she said before falling into a small pause. “He found that Inhuman and seeing that she hadn’t physically aged a day since the war, he kidnapped her and experimented on her.” She chose not to fully disclose everything that had been done to Jaying. “He created a serum that allowed him to de-age. Instead of the old man he should have been, he looked the same as he did in his old SSR profile picture.” Daisy tilted her head as she took in Bucky’s rigid posture. “He’s dead, Coulson killed him,” she informed him, watching as his shoulders slumped slightly. 

“Okay, well, where’s this Inhuman now?” Natasha asked. “Maybe you could talk to her an-”

“She’s dead,” Daisy interrupted flatly before standing up and making her way towards the sink to wash out her cup.

“We’ll figure something out, Daisy,” May said, watching the young woman spend more time than necessary to wash her cup. “We’ve faced worse things than this.” She stood up to approach the younger woman.

“Have we?” She responded then before she could help herself. Maybe on a global level, but on a personal one?

“Haven’t we?” May responded. They’d fought against Hydra so they didn’t get a strong hold on the world, they’d fought Inhumans, Aida, the Kree… “Remember when Simmons was absorbed by the Monolith? And the machine broke before we had a chance to save her?” She hadn’t actually been there, but she remembered hearing the story from various team members and how hopeless they’d felt at that moment. “But then, you used your powers to open a portal so that she could be rescued from Maveth.” It hadn’t been exactly what they’d planned, but it worked out even better. “We’ll find a solution to this too.” Because she refused to let Coulson die like that. He deserved a chance to live.

From her position next to Bucky, Natasha gave Daisy an appraising glance over. She’d done what? Opened a portal to another world? That was an impressive feat. And even though the younger woman currently had no access to her powers, May had told her about taking her on as a rookie and what a quick study she’d been. While it was obvious that Daisy and May had a lot on their plate in trying to keep the world from ending and keeping Coulson alive, she wondered if Daisy would consider helping them should something arise. She’d have to talk to Steve and Sam in the morning about it. Casting a subtle glance at Steve, she noticed his attention was also on Daisy. The expression on his face was a mixture between awe and consideration and she wondered if he’d had the same thought as her.

Gathering her emotions, Daisy cleared her throat, finished her task and turned around to look at May. “Do you really believe that?”

May nodded. “I do. We haven’t failed at anything yet and we’re sure as hell not going to start with Coulson.”

Daisy looked at the resolve on May’s face and nodded. “You’re right.”

Natasha cleared her throat, gathering their attention. “Steve and I would like to help too,” she told them. “Given our status according the Sokovia Accords, travel could be tricky, but we do have resources available to us.”

“I’ve already given Daisy our numbers,” Steve told his teammate softly. He watched as Natasha turned to him with a single arched eyebrow.

“Did you now?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Though she knew he would hear it anyway. 

Refusing to let her words embarrass him, he met her gaze steadily.  

Having missed the hushed words between the two, May nodded at Natasha. “Thank you, Natasha.” She didn’t know what they’d have to deal with after having been missing for six months, so it was a relief to know they had extra help on the Coulson front. She turned back to Daisy. “We should probably try and get some rest. Five o’clock comes early.”

“Tai Chi?” Daisy asked. Needless to say, there hadn’t been much of an opportunity to train when they were in space. “Can you handle it?” She asked, referring to the woman’s leg.

“We’ll see,” May admitted. “But we need to get back to a set schedule again.” The last six months hadn’t done them any favors in regard to training and sparring. She looked to Nat. “You want to join us?”

The blonde smiled. “Sure.” And if that didn’t work out, maybe there would be a sparring session? It was always nice to mix things up and train against someone new.

Daisy returned to the counter and grabbed the slip of paper she’d set down. “Thanks for the chat, Steve.”

He nodded at her. “Thank you for the hot chocolate.”

Daisy offered him a small smile. “Goodnight.”

Steve returned the gesture with one of his own before he looked to Natasha. When he noticed a single arched eyebrow, he shook his head. “Don’t even go there,” he warned before she had a chance to say something.

“Go where?” She asked innocently as he pursed his lips. When he took a sip from his drink she spoke again. “You two seemed cozy.”

He exhaled a weary sigh. “It was a conversation, Nat. Nothing more,” he said before she could get excited over the idea.

“I didn’t say it was,” she replied. “It’s just…if you were to get involved with someone-”

“She’d hardly be the best choice,” he shot down before she could continue. “Aside from the fact that I live in another country, we’ve both got enough on our plates before adding on a long-distance relationship,” he said, trying to discourage the idea. Tired of the conversation, he changed the subject. “You think they’ll find something to help Coulson?”

Giving up on the idea that she wouldn’t get anywhere with him, Natasha sent an appraising glance in the direction that May and Daisy walked off in and began nodding her head before she even turned her attention back to Steve. “I do. There’s no denying the affection between Coulson and Daisy.” The girl would die before she let anything happen to Coulson. “I also know that May has a special fondness for Coulson and will do what she has to, to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

He nodded along with her point before deciding to make himself scarce. “I think I’m going to turn in as well,” Steve said, making his way to the sink to rinse out his cup. “See you both in the morning.” It wasn’t so much that he was tired as it was wanting to get away from Nat before she tried to marry him off.

Once they were left alone, Natasha pursed her lips and turned to look at Bucky. _“He didn’t dismiss her, he dismissed their situations…”_ she trailed off, wondering if Steve even realized he’d done that.

_“Do you think that if you were occupied by a relationship, you’d stop focusing on Steve’s love life?”_ Because he knew that once she was finished with Steve then either he or Sam would be next, and it wasn’t something he was particularly interested in, as fun as it may have been to watch when it was someone else.

Natasha snorted at the thought of a romantic partner. _“Are you kidding? There’s not a man out there that could handle me,”_ she excused.

He arched a single eyebrow and smirked at her. _“Woman, then,”_ he corrected, wagging his eyebrows.

She narrowed her gaze on him. _“I’m not even going to address that, so I don’t contribute to your pornographic fantasies…”_

He couldn’t help the bark of laughter. _“You have no idea,”_ he told her, still smiling.

She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes in response before she thought on Daisy. _“Do you think it means anything that she shares her name with a flower?”_ She asked, recalling not only the old woman’s words, but the story that Bucky had told her.

Bucky shook his head at her one-track mind. He hadn’t even considered the fact that the younger woman’s name was Daisy, let alone what that could mean for anything else. He mentally chewed over her question, but he could only shrug his shoulders in response.

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

(Disclaimer: I took liberties with a portion of Coulson’s past during this chapter. If it completely negates things that we’ve learned in the series, I apologize and hope you can overlook it.)

Chapter 4

Hearing his friend’s phone ring, Bucky watched as Steve looked at the screen before sending it to voicemail. “Sharon again?” He inquired, exchanging a quick look with Sam.

Steve nodded as he tucked the phone away in his pocket.

“When did you start dodging her calls?” Sam asked then.

The first Avenger shrugged. “I don’t know why she’s trying to call. She’s the one that ended things in the first place.” At the time, he hadn’t blamed her, after all, he couldn’t treat her like a proper boyfriend ought to have. But that wasn’t to say that he hadn’t been hurt by their parting of ways. Like her aunt, she’d been a difficult woman to get over. Months after their break-up, he’d realized that just as he hadn’t been enough for her, she hadn’t been enough for him.  

“Maybe she’s regretting her decision…” Bucky said in a pointed manner.

Steve shrugged. “Well, nothing much has changed in my situation,” he replied, knowing that even if he were to entertain the idea of reuniting with her, the same issues would end up becoming a sore point between them sooner or later. “Has Natasha recruited you to take up her cause or something?” He asked then, wondering why Bucky was mentioning such a thing.

“Just trying to get a feel for things,” Bucky excused.

A feel for things? “Why?” Steve asked, not at all comforted by Bucky’s explanation.

Instead of giving his friend an answer, Bucky noticed Daisy a short distance away. “Oh, look, there’s Daisy,” he said, changing the subject. Walking past Steve, he made his intention to speak to her known. “She’s a pretty dame, isn’t she?”

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Steve said from behind, but followed him regardless.

“He got a thing for brunettes?” Sam asked in a whispered tone.

Steve snorted. “He’s got a thing for women, period.”

Pushing ahead, Bucky entered the area she was occupying. He took notice of the various drawings hanging on the wall but chose not to comment on them. “How did the Tai Chi work out?” Bucky asked her.

Pressing the tape against the wall in order to make sure it stuck to it, Daisy turned to look him. “Not as well as May would have liked,” Daisy replied as she smiled at him in acknowledgement. “It was a much shorter session than she’s used to.” She reached for another piece of the white construction paper and attached it onto the wall, directly underneath the other one. “Natasha and I sparred for a bit and by the time I left the gym, she and May had started.”

“Decided to do a little redecorating?” Sam asked, looking at the various drawings hanging on the wall.

She offered him a sheepish smile. “These were drawn by the same Inhuman girl that saw the end of the world. Because she can’t always tell the difference between visions of the past, present and future, she draws them.”

“So, you’re studying them…” Sam finished for her.

She nodded. “Just…seeing if there’s a solution here that we haven’t thought of,” she said, referring to Coulson’s predicament.

Steve looked at the various drawings and tried to see if he could make sense of anything. However, the pictures showed him nothing more than a child’s imagination. One picture was of, what he assumed was a giant person having eaten several little people, another was a couple on what looked like a beach. “You believe in this?” He asked, hoping his voice held a neutral tone. “In the notion that people can see the future.”

“I do,” she replied simply, not even bothering to lie. “Within reason, anyway.”

“What do you consider ‘within reason?’”

“While I don’t think I’ll be calling the ‘psychic friends network’ anytime soon, I’ve had three people predict something that either directly involved me or affected me.” She was easily able to discern the skepticism on his face. “Because of Robin’s prediction, we were sent to the future. If we weren’t, me may never have discovered the end of the world. Now, because we know, we can take steps to change it.” All three of her companions still seemed skeptical. “You don’t believe in it.”

Steve shook his head in negative. “I don’t,” he agreed.

Daisy shrugged. “Fair enough,” she allowed, not even bothering to argue her point. They were entitled to their own opinions.

“That’s it?” Bucky asked. “You aren’t going to try and argue your feelings on the matter?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, no,” she replied simply. “You have your opinions and I have mine, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.”

“Just out of curiosity, who were the other two people?” Sam asked.

Next to him, Steve turned his attention on Daisy. He was curious about that as well.

“The first time it happened, it was the Hydra associate that was in the Kree temple that transformed with me. Of course, I didn’t believe anything that she had to say. I was convinced that she was using her powers to manipulate those around her.” It was what she would have done prior to going through terrigenesis.

“What was it that she’d said?”

Instead of repeating the prophetic words, she began explaining that time in her life. “At the time, I was torn between two lives. SHIELD was so much more than a job for me. It was the first time I’d ever felt like I was part of a family, but then I met my biological parents. Hydra had come out and SHIELD was changing, and when I found an entire community of Inhumans…” It hadn’t so much felt like home, but it had been nice being surrounded by others who’d struggled and overcome the difficulties she’d been going through at the time. “My mother was an Inhuman and she was weary of humans, so when I showed up so involved with SHIELD…she wasn’t the happiest. I had arranged a sit down between the then acting director and Jaying behind closed doors. No one knew what happened, except that Jaying was shot and Gonzalez never made it out of the building. I didn’t understand how something like that had happened, regardless of the changes SHIELD was undergoing. I was told to choose a side.”

“And you couldn’t,” Steve finished for her.

Daisy nodded in response. “I sought Raina out and asked about the confrontation, if she’d seen it. She said she had, but that she hadn’t said anything because she knew I wouldn’t believe her. She told me that she’d come to the realization that her destiny was to help me fulfill mine. She said that Jaying was intentionally misleading her people and that it was my destiny to lead the Inhumans.” After she finished hanging up another drawing, she continued on. “Admittedly, I doubt the last part of that will ever happen, but she was right about Jaying.”

“And the other time?” Steve asked before he could help himself.

Arching a single eyebrow, Daisy offered him a smile of amusement. “I thought you didn’t believe in all this?”

He couldn’t help but smile back at her. “Maybe not, but it does make for an interesting story.”

She hesitated for a moment before nodding her head once. Setting down the remainder of the drawings, Daisy cleared her throat.

“This can’t be good,” Bucky whispered for Steve’s ears as Daisy completely sobered up.

Steve didn’t say anything in response, but his thoughts fell in the same direction.

“Robin’s father was also an Inhuman. He had the ability to show someone glimpses of an individual’s future death.”

“Like that person’s own death?” Sam asked for clarification.

“Sometimes, but not always. But the death they were shown always affected that person directly.” She licked her lips. “When I say glimpses, they were more like…flashes,” she clarified. Instead of meeting any one person’s gaze, she blankly stared ahead.

A frown bit at his lips as he looked at the brunette. Listening carefully to her words, an unease settled in Steve’s chest. The way she tried to explain it further…it was as if she was speaking from experience.

“A view of Earth from space, one of SHIELD’s quin jets in distress, a necklace floating and what looked like the beginning of an explosion…” She trailed off, thinking of the visions she’d seen on the roof before mentally shaking them from her head. “Enough to know that someone on the team was going to die, but not enough to figure out who.” She explained Hive and falling under his sway before going into his plan and her contribution to it. “By the time my link to him was severed, it was too late, his plan was already in play. The only solution was to get the gas off Earth before it was released.”

“But the jets can fly on their own,” Steve said.

“That was the initial plan, but Hive wasn’t going anywhere and because we couldn’t risk killing him without the possibility of him inhabiting another body, the plan changed. When the necklace from my vision came into my possession, I knew what I had to do.”

Sam frowned. “What changed?” Needless to say, the fact that she was standing before him meant she hadn’t died in space.

“After realizing my intention, my boyfriend took my place. He used his powers against me to knock me out of the jet before he locked himself in with the warhead and Hive and took off. I tried talking him down over the coms, not wanting him to pay for my mistakes.” She smiled sadly. “Got to save the girl and the world.”

Bucky tilted his head as he studied her form. “Mind control…” He trailed off, focusing on the part of her story that hit a little too close to home.

She nodded. “Sucks, doesn’t it?” Daisy asked, though the question required no response. She watched as Bucky dropped into one of the chairs in the room. “Even if the others were able to forgive me for the things I’d done at the time, forgiving yourself can take a lot longer.”

The former assassin smiled humorlessly. “Tell me about it,” he mumbled.

Assuming that her words drew up some unhappy thoughts for him, she looked away not wanting to intrude on that. Steve, who had been silent since she started talking about Lincoln’s decision to take her place, also appeared to have lost himself to one thought or another. Wow, way to bumb everyone out…

“Hero all around then,” Sam summed up kindly.

She offered him a heartfelt smile and nodded. “To this day, I don’t know if I was supposed to be in that jet or if it was Lincoln all along, but the vision came true. So, yes, I believe that some people have the ability to see the future. I’ve experienced it too many times to not believe in it.”

Listening to Daisy’s story was a little too close for comfort for him. Steve couldn’t help but remember his own bittersweet conversation with the girl that got away. Clearing his throat, Steve forced the melancholy thoughts away. “I’m sorry, I just don’t…see it,” he said then, not wanting to slip back into his memories. “It’s easy enough to reflect on events of the past and assign them to a picture she drew, but the pictures are vague enough to be interpreted in multiple ways.”

She eyes trailed over to the pictures she’d hung up before looking to the remaining ones that had yet to be hung. “Maybe some of these are nothing more than a girl’s imagination,” she allowed, thinking on a picture of a what she assumed was a mother and her blonde daughter. It was innocent enough, something any child could draw. Gathering the remaining stack, she looked over a picture in her hand, unable to make out who the people were in it. “But this?” She asked, showing Sam and Steve the drawing and pointing at a purple figure that towered over everyone else in the drawing. “This has to be more than just her imagination.” Because really, how many little girls drew a big purple monster that wasn’t a ‘flying purple people eater?’ The song itself had started to fade into obscurity when she was a child, so she doubted Robin had ever heard it.

Steve shook his head in negative. “Or it could just be the purple Teletubby,” he argued. He watched as Daisy attempted to chew away a small smile. “What?”

“Nothing,” she denied. “I just find myself impressed that you know what a Teletubby is.” She controlled her amusement and sighed. “I’m not asking you to believe, Steve. I was simply explaining why I do.”

Bucky looked from Daisy to Steve. “What the hell is a Teletubby?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Seeing you and May this morning, reminded me of the old days,” Coulson said as he claimed a seat next to Natasha, setting a folder down in front of him.

She nodded. “Me too,” she admitted. “You know, when Hydra came out and immediately started killing those agents that they deemed as their biggest threats, I thought she was among those lost.”

“If she hadn’t been assigned to the bus, I think that might have happened,” he admitted, thinking back on the time. He’d been wrong to have ever questioned May’s loyalty. Shaking the thought away, he asked the question that had been on his mind. “What really happened between the Avengers?” While each team had talked about the past few years, like them, Natasha and Steve managed to gloss over a few things.  

There was no denying the meaning behind his words, and she didn’t even bother to pretend otherwise. “The Sokovia Accords…Bucky…” Natasha exhaled a deep breath. “After the events in Sokovia, a grieving mother tracked Tony down. I don’t know what was said, but she was convincing enough that Tony did a complete 180 in his feelings. By the time the Accords were introduced, he and James Rhodes were all for them and Steve wasn’t.” Coulson nodded. At the time of them, he’d talked Daisy into signing along with it, regardless of her personal feelings. “Steve and Tony always fell on opposite sides when it came to most things, but when it came to the Accords, neither was willing to budge on their view.”

He nodded, knowing how stubborn both men could be. “But still…Captain America, a war criminal? Captain America?!”

She couldn’t help but smile at the ‘fan-boy’ he could still be where Steve was concerned. “After Steve realized that Bucky was The Winter Soldier, we spent months trying to find information on him and trying to track him down. During our search, we learned that Hydra had a hand in killing Howard and Maria Stark.”

“It wasn’t a car accident?”

“There was an accident, but they didn’t die in it. I don’t know what Stark had been working on, but it was enough of a threat to Hydra to send an assassin after him.”

Coulson put two and two together and winced. “That’s rough,” he voiced, knowing that at one time Howard and Bucky were friends of a sort.

She nodded. “And you know how impulsive Tony can be… Tony wanted vengeance and Steve wouldn’t let him kill Bucky. Tony felt betrayed by him and they came to blows. We’ve been on the run since. Wanda was with us for a while, but she’s since gone off on her own.”

“What about Clint and Banner? What do they have to say about it?” He asked, curious to hear the answer. He wondered what Thor thought, but seeing as he wasn’t on Earth, he wondered if the Asgardian was even aware of the rift that split his teammates.

“Clint felt the same way as Steve in regard to the Accords…and Bucky. You remember what happened when we dealt with Loki,” she said, referring to the mind control Clint and others had been placed under. “Because of that, he can’t help but feel a kinship to Bucky,” she replied, watching as Coulson digested the news. “He’s been on house arrest since everything happened. I think he was tempted to join us, but he didn’t want to leave Laura and the kids behind and chance not being able to see or contact them.”

“And Banner?” He prompted when she made no move to mention him.

“Has been MIA since Sokovia.” No one had seen him since his departure. “He’s probably the only one that could have talked any sense into Tony where Bucky is concerned,” she shared, knowing how quick the friendship between the scientist and tech billionaire started. “Thankfully, T’Challa has opened his country to us and has helped Bucky tremendously.”

“And you spend most of your time in Wakanda?”

“No. In the beginning we did, Steve didn’t want to leave Bucky alone for too long, but we did grow restless. Since Bucky has improved, we travel more. He doesn’t usually join us, he’s still not comfortable with the idea of being out in public for too long.”

Coulson nodded before looking down at the folder in front of him and pushing it in front of Natasha.

“What’s this?” She asked, opening the folder and looking at the top page before flipping through the rest.

“It’s a list of SHIELD safehouses abroad that I know for a fact have been cleaned up and are safe once again.” He watched as she perused the pages. “I don’t know if any of these appeal to you, but if you guys run into something along the way, I wanted to let you know that you’re more than welcome to use any of these.”

Natasha beamed at him before leaning over and embracing him. “Thank you.”

Coulson returned the affection. “You’re welcome.”

“Phil, about yesterday…” She began.

He pulled away from her. “Can we not talk about this?” He’d already talked to May the previous night and he was sure Daisy would be next in an attempt to change his mind.

Seeing that he was already weary about what she may say, she closed her mouth before opening it once again. “You know that Melinda and Daisy aren’t going to just accept your decision lying down, right?” In fact, most of his team seemed to be of the same mind as the two women.

He nodded. “I know.”

“Okay,” she offered him a small smile. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m totally with them on this.”

A wry smile decorated his lips. “I figured you would be.”

“You’ve got a good team here. And I don’t just mean May and Daisy,” she told him. “I can see how far you guys have come.”

“It hasn’t been easy.”

“No. ‘SHIELD’ and ‘easy’ aren’t two words that usually belong together in the same sentence,” she allowed. “I guess it’s safe to assume that a majority of the reason why the Avengers hadn’t been busy is because of your team…”

Coulson considered her words for a moment before nodding. “Probably,” he modestly replied. “But just so you know, I kept Theta Protocol going,” he said, referring to the term used for the Avengers. “If we face a situation that we can’t handle the team knows to reach out to Maria Hill.” It had always been his plan as a last resort. 

“Hey, Phil,” she asked after a beat. “Why didn’t you tell us you were alive?” She asked before she had a chance to change her mind. “I heard what you said yesterday, but…I know there’s something more to it.”

“Growing up, my father told me stories about his time in the war. He was part of the 107th that Steve rescued. He spoke of Steve and the Howling Commandos,” he began. “Whatever he’d seen from the outside made an impression on him, so when he spoke about it to me, it stuck with me. And I grew up wanting to be like them, a hero, but not wanting to be the center of attention like Cap. In college I learned how SHIELD had shaped everything and I set my cap at it and I never looked back. I was young and eager, I lived and breathed SHIELD.” He’d been completely satisfied by his decision. “Even after I matured, I never regretted my decision to not marry and take a desk job. And then I met Audrey.”

Natasha smiled sadly as she thought of the woman that he’d once crowed about.

“She was the first woman I’d met since joining SHIELD that even made me think about the possibility of having a life outside of it,” he admitted. “After my death, I struggled with the idea of not being able to return to my former life, not being able to see her. I wondered what would have happened if Loki hadn’t killed me, what my life with Audrey would have been like,” because there’d been no doubt in his mind that that was where his relationship with her had been headed. “It was the hardest order I’ve ever had to follow,” he admitted, not having another choice at the time. “I threw myself back into the job, but it wasn’t the same.”

“You found a new normal.”

“I did.” And it was something he was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to do if he’d never been assigned to the bus. “Being on the bus allowed us to live in our own little world and it was easier to live that way. When the dust settled after Hydra, and I was at the helm, I thought about going to you guys, but…”

“You didn’t want to be reminded of that other life,” she finished for him.

He nodded once in agreement before giving her a lopsided smile. “This is the first time that I ever told anyone that.”

She offered him a sad smile in response. “Steve tries to avoid thinking on his past too,” she shared quietly.  

After a pregnant pause, he offered her a smile. “There’s also the fact that I didn’t want to take the chance of you guys trying to lure Daisy away from me,” he added, hoping to lighten the conversation. Though being an Avenger meant they did things no one else could do, there was also an air of celebrity status that went along with it and he was worried she would have enticed away.

She giggled then and nodded, able to see that happening. “Your girl’s not going anywhere,” she told him after a moment while she patted the back his hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After saying her goodbye to Sam, Daisy blinked as Natasha stepped up to her.

“You have our numbers, don’t you?” Natasha asked for one final time. Even though Steve informed her that he’d already given them to Daisy, she needed to hear it from the brunette. 

Daisy nodded. “Already programmed into my phone,” she told the other woman. “And Steve’s already asked me to keep you guys up to date on the progress with Coulson,” she tacked on for assurance.

“Good.” She looked the brunette over, not missing the strain that Coulson’s news had already placed her under and the worry behind her eyes. “I’m sure that everything is going to work out,” she said placing a supportive hand on Daisy’s shoulder.

She wished she had that faith. “How do you know?”

“I’ve worked with May before. I know the determination she puts into everything and I see that in you.” She removed her hand from Daisy. “You guys are going to find a cure for him.”

Daisy offered her a smile and changed the subject. “Thanks for showing me that move earlier, I can’t wait to try it out.”

“Of course. It was nice to spar against a new partner,” the natural redhead said. She leaned in and hugged Daisy. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too,” Daisy said returning the embrace before releasing her. She watched as Natasha approached Coulson and threw her arms around him before looking to the person standing before her. Upon seeing Bucky Barnes standing in front of her, she gave him a sincere smile. It wasn’t until she realized that there was an air of consideration on his face as he looked her over that her smile dimmed. “What?”

Bucky shook his head in negative. “Nothing,” he excused, aware of the fact that Steve was right next to him. Not wanting to risk saying anything that his friend could overhear and question him about later, he offered her a smile. “I just really enjoyed meeting you,” he offered.

Really? That was what prompted the look? Again, she felt as if she’d missed something. However, instead of saying anything about it, Daisy nodded. “Me too,” she responded.

“Maybe we’ll see each other again,” he said then with a shrug of his shoulders.

“If you ever want to get away from all that opulence at the palace in Wakanda, you’re always welcome here,” she said, extending an open invitation.

He smiled at her. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he bent over and grabbed one of her hands. “Ms. Daisy, it has been a pleasure,” he told her dramatically as he placed a kiss on the back of her hand. Standing up, he winked at her before walking away.

With a smile on her face, she watched him walk away before turning to look at Steve, whom was also smiling. “A charmer, that one,” she said while shaking her head.

Steve nodded, wearing a wistful smile as he turned around to look at her. “That was nothing, you should have seen him in the old days. I think Peggy is the only woman that didn’t fall for his charm,” he replied, his smile fading as he thought about those days.

Sensing the turn in his thoughts she cleared her throat to capture his attention. “You guys are lucky that you have found each other,” she told him.

He offered her a half-hearted smile.

When it was apparent that he was going to comment on it, she changed the subject. “Thank you for your offer to help with Coulson. We don’t exactly know what we’re walking into in regard to the government, so…”

“Of course, I meant every word,” he immediately responded. “As for everything else, good luck with all of that.” They already had enough on their plate and he hoped that they’d be able to concentrate on saving the world and Coulson rather than deal with the government. “Just…take care of yourself and your team.”

She nodded. “You guys headed back to Wakanda for a while?”

“We haven’t really decided,” he shrugged. Bucky, as much as he’d enjoyed his time away, wanted to get back. “We may not officially be the Avengers anymore, but it’s hard to just sit back and…” he trailed off, not sure of the word he wanted to use.

“Relax,” Daisy supplied for him with a smirk on her face.

He nodded. “Something like that,” he murmured.

“Daisy, sorry to interrupt, but we have a potential situation,” Mack said approaching the pair. “We discovered a beacon that sounds similar to what Voss spoke about.”

“I’ll be right there,” she told him before turning back to Steve. “And it begins…”

“At least you can say that your life will never be boring,” the former Avenger observed. “Good bye, Daisy.”

“Take care of yourself, Steve,” she responded softly.

He dipped his head at her before stepping away to join the others. As soon as he approached them, Bucky fell next to him, behind Natasha and Sam.

“Nice group,” Bucky said.

Steve nodded. “They are.”

“And I really like Daisy,” the former assassin added as an afterthought. Giving his friend a side glance, he watched for any sort of reaction.

“Of course, you do,” Steve murmured. He couldn’t help but shake his head at his best friend. “I’ll be sure to pass on your regard the next time I speak to her,” he told Bucky.

“Please do,” Bucky said, his facial expression taking one of earnest. Turning around, he looked at the woman they’d just departed from who was busy talking with Mack.

Stopping along with him, Steve followed his line of sight before looking back at his best friend with raised eyebrows. At first, he’d thought his friend was joking, but the attention that Bucky seemed to hold for her had him second-guessing his original thoughts. “In all seriousness, if you want me to, I will,” he offered.

Turning back to Steve, Bucky chuckled before he threw an arm around his shoulders. “Come on, punk. Let’s get to the jet before Natasha decides to take off without us,” he said, pulling the enhanced man along with him. “Hey, Stevie? Do you remember the night we saw the fortune teller?”


End file.
